NFL

Patriots have everything Jets want

The Patriots have what the Jets want. They have had it for the better part of the last decade.

The Patriots have the hardware, having won three Super Bowl rings under Bill Belichick.

They have the NFL’s best quarterback in Tom Brady.

They have a history of sustained excellence.

All this has left the Jets, well, sick and tired of it all.

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The Jets have had a modicum of success during the last decade but almost always have fallen short of the things that were being accomplished in New England. Gang Green have been like that kid whose parents constantly ask, “Why can’t you be more like your big brother?”

All of it has left the Jets wrestling with conflicting emotions. Those emotions have been equal parts envy, jealousy, hate and grudging respect.

“Perfection, that’s what they’re chasing,” said veteran defensive lineman Trevor Pryce, who is new to this contentious division rivalry having just joined the Jets this season, told The Post. “That’s what makes them so good. They’re chasing perfection. They beat the Colts [three weeks ago], and Tom Brady is cussing and carrying on at the end of the game over something. He’s not celebrating. He has a sullen look on his face. All the great ones are like that.

“They chase perfection. They don’t chase football games. They don’t chase winning or losing. Everyone wants to win, but there’s something else inside of them that drives them. You admire that as a football player, but as an opponent it’s like, ‘Aarrgghh, I hate them.’”

Jets right tackle Damien Woody, who won two Super Bowls with the Patriots and has the best Jets-Patriots perspective of all, told The Post the Patriots’ way is “what everyone is striving for.”

“That’s the standard,” Woody said. “Every year they’re in it. They plug the next man in and go.”

The Patriots’ excellence hasn’t been limited to dominating the Jets. They have dominated the division, the conference and the entire NFL.

Since 2001, the Patriots’ 45-14 mark is the best in the AFC East, to go along with seven division titles. The Jets are a distant second with a 30-29 record and one division title.

“They represent the team we aspire to be,” Jets right guard Brandon Moore told The Post. “We’d like to be looked at in that regard. They’ve set the bar in our division since 2001. They’ve been the standard bearer. They’ve owned the division and they’ve kind of owned us a little bit.”

Are the Jets jealous of the Patriots’ success?

“I don’t want to say they’re an annoyance . . . but they’ve owned the division,” Moore said. “After a while it gets a little old. You want to win games and be the top team in our division.”

Said Woody: “When you’re the chief, there are people out there that want to knock you off. They’re the chief of the division, and we’re trying to knock them off the block. That’s our goal this week — to knock them off and get a stranglehold of this thing and become the new kids on the block.”

Defensive end Shaun Ellis — who, as the longest-tenured Jet, has endured the most disappointment at the hands of New England’s dominance (14 losses in 20 games) — last year described the Patriots as bullies who always take away the Jets’ lunch money.

“For so long, they’ve been the guys to beat — not just in our division but the entire league,” Ellis said. “To be able to go into this game in this fashion, both 9-2, it’d be a great deal if we can get it done.”

Receiver Jerricho Cotchery said the Patriots have unwittingly teased the competition over the years, too.

“Just when you feel they’re going to fall off they pick it up and are in the same position every year,” Cotchery said. “They’re the true definition of consistency.

Every year, you know they’re going to be there.”

That next step, Cotchery said, is dethroning the Patriots as AFC East champions and winning the division, something the Jets haven’t done since 2002.

“I would love to see how that feels,” Cotchery said. “That’s what we set out to do at the beginning of the year. To win the Super Bowl, we have to win our division and it goes through those guys. We have to win these games against them.”

mcannizzaro@nypost.com